Poland drafts 'pre-war law' letting army act against hybrid threats

A law for the grey zone

The government is preparing a bill that Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Zalewski calls the 'pre-war law', although its formal name will be the law on state defence readiness. Dziennik Gazeta Prawna quotes Zalewski describing a 'whole grey zone with many shades' between peace and war. Sabotage on rail tracks, attacks on infrastructure and border provocations fall into that space. Current preparedness rules are scattered across several Council of Ministers regulations issued after the 2022 law on the defence of the Homeland, and the new law is meant to gather them in one place.

It is about preparing the state to function and respond to threats before the grounds for introducing martial law appear.

Powers for the armed forces

Zalewski said one of the most important elements of the bill will be rules on using armed forces in conditions of hybrid threats. The change would allow the military to carry out kinetic rather than police tasks, which is the role soldiers play on the Belarus border today. Such operations could take place in Poland or outside it, including under allied obligations. For now the ministry uses the term 'sudden situations' without setting out detailed conditions, and Zalewski said these will be specified later. The bill is also meant to clarify how the army cooperates with other uniformed services, and it would cover entrepreneurs, who could be tasked with supporting the defence system, including civil defence. According to Wprost, the bill is also meant to create legal grounds for NATO actions that eliminate a threat before it reaches the level requiring collective defence.

Political reaction

Deputy minister Cezary Tomczyk said President Karol Nawrocki told Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz that he would support the law, and that the defence minister had received a 'green light' for it. Tomczyk noted that the president has vetoed only one project prepared by the ministry, the SAFE programme. Tomczyk gave his view of that veto in the following words.

I believe he made the biggest mistake of his presidency at that time.

A source in the Presidential Palace said the president is aware that work on the law has started and will join it once the National Security Bureau sends him the draft. Tomczyk rejected claims from the president's circle that the government is stirring up fear of war. He also said the constitution was written in a different era, so Poland often lacks clear answers to some of the challenges it faces.

Timeline of the work

Rzeczpospolita reported on Friday, 2 October, that work on the law was underway, and the ministry's media department confirmed it. Dziennik Gazeta Prawna followed on Thursday, 8 October, with Zalewski's details, and the ministry says the draft will be presented within two weeks. The conditions for triggering 'sudden situations' have not yet been published.